International Comparisons of Health Care Output and Productivity

Measuring the output and productivity of the health care sector is important but difficult, and it has been a long-standing policy concern. Statistical agencies in some countries such as U.K., Eurostat, Australia, and the U.S. have done substantial research to investigate various approaches to measure the output. This paper reviews recent developments in the economic measurement of health care output and compares the results by applying different methods to the health care sector in Canada. Our initial results show that different approaches result in significant different output measurement. Health care analysts and policy makers should be aware of these differences in comparing output and productivity across countries. JEL: C43, H51